Saturday, May 31, 2014

Every so often (i.e. whenever I feel like it), I will add a card to a "Trade Stack". Whenever the stack becomes appealing enough to someone, that person needs to comment on the post saying they'd like to claim the stack AND tell me which card they are sending off of my want list. That's all you have to do - trade me ONE card (or more, of course) card from my want list for the entire stack of cards that I'm offering. Each time, it will be first come, first serve...so act quickly (unless of course you are a gambler and hope to wait it out until there are 10+ cards in the stack that you want in exchange for a single 2004 UD Vintage card that I am looking for)!

The Trade Stack:

Last update: 5/31/14

Today's addition to the stack is a 2014 Topps cards. Perhaps it is one that you need for your set? This happens to be the eighth card in the stack - and with other names like Don Mattingly (added last time), Johnny Bench, and even a flaky Ken Griffey Jr., I don't anticipate this stack sticking around for much longer!

If you want the stack, remember - all you need to do is offer up any one card from my want list.2014 Topps:306. Garrett Richards - Angels

Want the card(s) in the stack? Act fast - tell me which card you will send me off my want list in the comments below! You must leave a comment on the trade stack post in order to claim the card - no more claims via email! If no one claims this card within a reasonable amount of time (a few hours up to a few days, depending) - I'll add another card to the stack and the process will start again!

Friday, May 30, 2014

On Tuesday, I had to make the drive up to Oneonta, New York in order to attend a two-day planning meeting for a grant that my college may (or may not) eventually be involved in. Since Oneonta is only about 20 minutes or so from Cooperstown, I decided to leave my house earlier than necessary in order to check out Cooperstown - both the town and the Baseball Hall of Fame!

I had been to Cooperstown once before when I was a young kid - but that was many years ago so I was excited to return to the town (especially to the Hall of Fame).

When I arrived in the little town of Cooperstown, I was immediately pleased to see how non-busy the town was! I was able to nab a great parking spot in the Doubleday Field parking lot. The one downside was the cost of parking - if memory serves it is $0.50 for every 15 minutes. The good news is that the parking lot was only about a block from the Hall of Fame (and it was a pleasant day to walk around)!

Once you arrive at the Hall of Fame, you have two choices. You can turn left and pay to enter the actual museum or you can turn right and enter the gift shop (free of charge). I did stop in the gift shop on my way out (and grabbed a Reds' t-shirt on sale plus something for my "man cave") but to begin with I decided to start with the museum.

As a Reds fan, I was mostly interested in making sure I didn't miss any of the Reds' history within the museum. As it turned out, there was a LOT of Reds stuff in the Hall - something that made me quite happy!

The first bit of Cincinnati gear that I discovered was this old timers jersey.

I wasn't only looking for Reds stuff though - heck, I knew I wanted to write a blog post about the Hall of Fame so I did try to take at least a couple of photos of relics from other teams. Since the Dodgers have about 2,485,381 (roughly) active bloggers, this one's for the 2+ million of you:

One of the big surprises for me was how often Pete Rose was referenced in the Hall of Fame (despite him being banned from inclusion in the Hall). It seemed to be a dual standard to me, but what do I know?

One of the kind of cool things that the Hall had set up was a locker room of sorts where each MLB team had its own locker (complete with various historical momentos from that particular team). The Reds locker looked like this:

Within the locker, was plenty of cool stuff including Billy Hamilton's cleats from his stolen base record setting season in the minor leagues.

There weren't a lot of trophies within the Hall (certainly fewer than I had expected to see) but there were a few including this one in a display case with some more assorted teams! I kind of like the Pirates' star hat - and that A's jersey is glorious in its bright 1991 Fleer yellow design!

There was also a couple of art galleries within the Hall. One was basically for photographs and the other was for more traditional artwork (paintings, drawings, etc.). Once again, Pete Rose was on display!

Moving to the other gallery, I found this rather cool Niekro "jersey". The entire thing is actually made out of baseball cards - each carefully cut up so that the proper colors show through. The tag next to the piece of art said that there were very few duplicate baseball cards used.

The one thing that I didn't like about that Niekro piece? The one full baseball card in the middle was a Niekro autograph - but it was a sticker autograph. For shame!

I actually tried my best to get a photo of the description as well with the hopes of seeing if these things are available of sites like eBay. As of the time I wrote this post, there were quite a few listed (not all baseball though).

Continuing past the pennant display and into the second art gallery, I found this Norman Rockwell painting which I loved.

Good stuff!

Now, one of the big reasons for my wanting to return to the Hall of Fame was because my favorite player (Barry Larkin) wasn't in the Hall the last time I was there. Although Larkin's induction is certainly no longer "new news," I was happy to see that he still had a bit of a presence within the Hall itself.

Of course, one can't visit the Hall of Fame without visiting all the plaques. The actual room that houses the plaques is sort of small (much smaller than I remember it from when I was a kid)!

After a bit of searching, I succeeded in finding the plaque that I was most interested in!

All told, I spent about two hours in the museum portion. I didn't read every plaque or piece of information but I did do a fairly thorough job of exploring the Hall!

In the gift shop, I nabbed a Reds t-shirt (on sale!) and also one the tin signs you see on the wall (the wall showed all the signs there were to choose from). I think the signs would make an awesome addition to my baseball card room - but at ten bucks a pop I only bought one.

Back outside of the museum, I did spend a bit of time walking down the main street of Cooperstown. It's certainly a pretty town - though I can't imagine how crowded the place becomes during induction weekend!

In case you get hungry, I can recommend Hey, Getcha Hot Dog! as a place to eat lunch...

...though it was a bit pricey (about $8 for a hot dog, fries, and drink).

Finally, on my way back to my car I explored the Doubleday Field. There weren't any games happening so the stadium was free and open to anyone who wanted to walk around.

The stadium is extremely small - even the Little League World Series stadiums in Williamsport, PA dwarf Doubleday field (in terms of the stadium size - not the dimension of the outfield of course)! My favorite part of the stadium was the old-timey labeling of the seats.

They don't look terribly comfortable for watching a full game - but they make for an excellent photo!

And with that, I hopped back in my car and made the drive back south to Oneonta for my meeting the next day. I greatly enjoyed my time in Cooperstown - and if you haven't had the opportunity to go I would highly recommend it!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

I should be returning home later today from my series of meetings in New York state. Since this post is obviously being pre-written, I'm going to take the easy way out and finish off the final two packs out of my 1999 Pacific Private Stock box!

I don't find the Home Run History cards to be all that exciting today - after all, the entire home run race has been tainted by corked bats, juiced biceps, and generally unlikable liars. However, if you are going to get a Home Run History card, you probably want it to be this one (at least as far as Sosa is concerned).

Pack 24:
43. Rafael Palmeiro
87. Jason Giambi
130. Aramis Ramirez

137. Richie Sexson
140. Matt Stairs
PS-206: 3. J.D. Drew

And so ends the box.

The good news? I did pull a Barry Larkin base card for my collection.
The bad news? Way too many base card duplicates - especially since I didn't finish the base set from the box. Also, no Larkin mini card which I was really hoping to pull!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Every so often (i.e. whenever I feel like it), I will add a card to a "Trade Stack". Whenever the stack becomes appealing enough to someone, that person needs to comment on the post saying they'd like to claim the stack AND tell me which card they are sending off of my want list. That's all you have to do - trade me ONE card (or more, of course) card from my want list for the entire stack of cards that I'm offering. Each time, it will be first come, first serve...so act quickly (unless of course you are a gambler and hope to wait it out until there are 10+ cards in the stack that you want in exchange for a single 2004 UD Vintage card that I am looking for)!

The Trade Stack:

Last update: 5/28/14

I last updated the trade stack before I left for my cruise vacation. Since that time, the stack of six cards has remained sitting on my desk unclaimed... That's a long time - so let's see if we can find someone to love the cards by adding another slab of cardboard to the stack. Today's addition is the seventh card (and remember you get the entire stack for any one card off my want list)! I know there are a lot of Yankee fans out there so I expect there to be at least moderate interest in today's addition. In fact, there are a lot of fans out there of the set that today's card comes from as well - so who knows, maybe the stack will be claimed soon!

If you want the stack, remember - all you need to do is offer up any one card from my want list.2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants:20. Don Mattingly - Yankees

Want the card(s) in the stack? Act fast - tell me which card you will send me off my want list in the comments below! You must leave a comment on the trade stack post in order to claim the card - no more claims via email! If no one claims this card within a reasonable amount of time (a few hours up to a few days, depending) - I'll add another card to the stack and the process will start again!

The Studio brand was not one that I ever purchased as a kid - and that's probably just as well based on this particular card. The front of the card is alright though it's definitely undeniably cheesy. The locker shot with the jersey on the hanger coupled with Larkin's awkward grin make for a super cheesy card front (though it's charming in a way)!

Unfortunately, the back of the card is simply awful

The script initials? Blech.
The slanted statistic labels (with much too small font)? Double blech.
The fact that the easiest bit to read is that Larkin had an 8 year career (at that point)? Boring.

Simply put, I can't find anything nice to say about the back of the card - even the card number in the pinkish triangle is garish. Oye.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

A mere two days after returning from a vacation I'm heading back on the road again! This time, it's off to Oneonta, New York for a grant. However, I'm heading up north a bit earlier in the day in order to visit nearby Cooperstown (about an 20 minute drive for me each way). Cooperstown, of course, being the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I've been to the Hall of Fame once before - but I was very, very young and I only barely remember it. In fact, the one clear memory I have is a display case showing an all-green Reds hat that I thought was cool (the Reds wore it for St. Patrick's Day). Today such things are much less exciting since every team has a bunch of hat and jersey variations (not to mention spring training garb, batting practice garb, etc.).

Anyhow, I'll be gone again for a couple of days - but once I return from this trip things should ideally calm down a bit for me for at least a month or so! Once that happens I'll be able to return to my card reorganization (I haven't given up on that yet)...

Until then, I might as well continue working my way through the 1999 Pacific Private Stock box. There are only four packs remaining - here's half of 'em!

That's it for today. As I mentioned, by the time you read this post I should be on my way to the Baseball Hall of Fame - hopefully I remembered my camera so that I can take a bunch of photos...who knows, I might even get a more interesting blog post out of it when all is said and done! Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!

Monday, May 26, 2014

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent the previous week on a Royal Caribbean cruise vacation. I plan to do a full review of my cruise in the near future - so look for that when the time is right (i.e. when I have more time to write a long post)! What I might not have mentioned is that right before I left for my trip I received word that I successfully interviewed and was granted a brand new job beginning (officially) in July of this year!

I will be leaving the world of pure teaching and moving over into a staff position in which I'll be heading up my college's mathematics center (which hasn't yet been formed - my first task)! The position will allow me to teach a few classes each year, but after this coming fall semester I'll no longer be teaching a full-time load. It's somewhat bittersweet to leave my teaching gig - but the jig was definitely up without going on for the Ph.D. I definitely lucked out in that I get to continue teaching at least a few college math classes each year while fulfilling my duties in my new position.

It'll be challenging - especially the first year or two - but I love challenges so I'm looking forward to it!

Next, I also received word that I was selected as one of my college's representatives for a grant that will be meeting this summer. I don't know a lot about the grant yet (that's what the planning meeting is for) but I do know it hinges on teaching effectiveness - something very much near and dear to my heart (and a perfect tie-in to my new job)!

Finally, my summer softball season begins this week.

Busy times!

Now, I only mention all that on the blog so that you know what is happening - and why things might slow down a bit around here. In fact, this past week while I was on vacation there were a couple of days in which I only had time to schedule a single post. Then, yesterday I spent a good chunk of the day mowing my jungle of a lawn which meant I barely had time to post anything.

I imagine this will be closer to the norm rather than the exception as I move forward but we shall see. I do know that I still enjoy blogging - and trading (and collecting cards of course) so I don't see myself hanging it up quite yet.

Plus, how could I quit when I still have 25% of an unopened box of Pacific cards sitting on my desk?

Well, if I'm not going to get a parallel of Barry Larkin, I would hazard a guess that Jeter would be one of the best non-Reds to pull in the set! This card is numbered out of 299 on the reverse (in black ink). The Exclusive Series is so named because it is exclusive to hobby packs of Private Stock. The only real difference between this card and a regular base card is the stamp on the front and the serial numbering on the reverse of the card. Still, a nice pull - and a nice welcome back for me in terms of card collecting!

Speaking of welcome backs, did I mention that my brother dropped off another TWO big 'ol boxes of cards for me to sort through?

Another nice pack! The Griffey Jr. is the red back parallel mini card (seeded 1:25 packs).

Once again, if I couldn't pull a Larkin I couldn't do much better than getting a Griffey Jr. card! This one goes directly into my personal collection for sure!

That was a fun start to my return to the "real world." Hopefully there are a few more surprises lurking in the final four packs of the box... Whether or not there are, they will have to wait until a later date.

Until then, Happy Memorial Day everyone! Actually, as my sister rightly pointed out - it's probably not proper to say "Happy" in front of Memorial Day - let's not forget the men and women who served our country.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

I made it back home, that's the good news. The bad news is that I have a ton to get done today (including mowing my jungle of a lawn since it apparently rained every day we were gone on vacation). I hope to get back to regular blog posting tonight, but no promises...

Also, only one card package in the mail all week while I was gone - that's a bummer!

Saturday, May 24, 2014

By the time you read this post, there is a decent chance I should be home from my vacation (my wife and I went on a cruise). However, this post was written over a week ago before I left for my vacation so that my blog wouldn't go completely dead in my absence. Enjoy one of (maybe the last?) post written well before the fact.

I stopped keeping track of the duplicates since all of the sudden I have a huge stack of 'em. That's certainly disappointing as I was hoping to complete the full 1999 Pacific Private Stock set from a single box...it's looking less and less likely though that I will be able to make that a reality.

I return from my vacation today - so this is one of the final "phoned in" posts from me. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be rested and ready to rock and roll once again. For now though? You get another pre-written, pre-scheduled post.

The minis in this set are alright but as I open more and more packs it has become clear to me that outside of a few guys that I collect the rest are nothing but trade bait for me! That list of trade bait definitely will include both the Edgar Martinez mini and the Mo Vaughn mini. Both good players, but neither guys that I'm interested in collecting.

Friday, May 23, 2014

By now, you have probably realized that I more or less phoned in most of my posts this week - but that's because I've been away on vacation all week! Happily for my readers, I will be returning tomorrow so I'll have a better stuff in the near future.

I know, I know. You actually couldn't tell I phoned it in...my posts all have the same (low) quality!

Enough bad mouthing myself, let's get on with another quick pack rip. I'm trying to crank out a few more posts before leaving on my trip...